


The Diamond of all things

by TerresDeBrume



Series: Of gems, and the people who own them [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Gen, Historical Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-02
Updated: 2013-03-02
Packaged: 2017-12-04 02:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And here Anton thought talking to his Assassin was going to be the oddest thing about his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Diamond of all things

**Author's Note:**

> Day 26 of the 30 days writing challenge, for the prompt: Diamond

“It kind of looks like a blue diamond.”  
  
The content of Anton’s bathtub spills all over the floor when he jerks back from Loki’s face and tilts it sideways, heart hammering behind his ribcage, all that because of a stupid Assassin who, once you get past the whole not-talking-to-him thing, reveals a pronounced penchant for pranks and childish jokes.  
  
“You’re naked,” he says when Anton gets to his feet, richer by a few bruises.  
“I was in my bath, did you expect me to wear my damned armor?”  
  
Anton is still standing in all his naked glory when Préost Thor pushes the door to the bathing room, covered in sweat from his training and slightly smelly, if you want to know. Anton sighs, deep and so very tired he almost feels surprised when no wrinkle appear on his hands… or other parts of his anatomy, for that matter.  
For his part, Préost Thor settles for stopping dead in his track, glancing at every detail of the room save Anton himself and then asking:  
  
“Why is an Assassin hanging from the ceiling?”  
“Because he is apparently twelve,” Anton says, making Loki snort:  
“If that. Worry not though, I started training long before I joined the order.”  
“Aye,” Préost Thor says, “We hear queer stories from the North.”  
“Like shining blue diamonds embeded in children’s chests to prevent them from dying?”  
  
Now  _that_  makes Anton pause -what does Loki even know of the stone in his chest, and what is  _Thor_ supposed to have heard about it?  
  
“Apologies,” Loki says, sarcastic, “I forgot, the Tesseract is a Southron thing. Did you know it screams every time you split it up? We can hear it all the way from the North.”  
“This stone isn’t part of the Tesseract!” Préost Thor protests, making Tony wonder what kind of bad blood transpired between the two other men’s people.  
  
Stories of the mainland don’t often reach the Emerald Island, for they are too far off the East and much too small to interest even the poorest Lords… Anton, however, wasn’t aware that stories from the Emerald Isles could reach the mainlands.  
  
“No,” Loki shrugs, but it  _is_  part of the Arkstone.”  
“The Arkstone was stolen,” Anton says, knowing  _this_  at least. “Thieves came into the Sapphire Isles and took it away ages ago.”  
“Aye,” Loki says, “And the inhabitants had to leave and reach the Emerald Isles instead -smaller and poorer, but easier to populate and safer to live in once the protector stone was moved. And now we all reap the benefits of that, don’t we?”  
  
Anton gapes.  
  
“What on Earth are you talking about?”  
“The North and the South have been enemies for a long time,” Préost Thor explains, “But when the powers of the Tesseract lessened and the stone became unable to protect more than half the land, there were two Houses who saw sense an formed an alliance. They sent a man each, with their escorts, and bid them go to the Sapphire Isles in order to retrieve a chunk of the Arkstone, their protective stone…”  
“Only the Southerner acted like an idiot and managed to destroy the rest of the stone,” Loki says, “Despite the Northerner’s warning. you could have….”  
“I told you it was an  _accident_!” Thor hisses, making Anton tilt.  
“Wait, what do you mean, you  _told_  him? You never met him before we came here!”  
“Not in this life,” Loki says resentfully. Unfortunately the Arkstone seems to have decided the two of us should meet again every odd year. After we found the Dragons we set up the Order to protect both stones, and made it so that we would not talk to each other. This way, we wouldn’t have remembered anything and it would have spared us the Hassle. That was without counting on you, though.”  
“Or your inherent inability to not defy the rules,” Préost Thor says.  
  
Anton only realizes he’s still naked when his bare buttocks fall on the wet, cold ground upon the realization that, not only is the stone in his chest part of a sacred artefact lost over a thousand years ago, he also apparently owes its existence to Loki and Thor themselves.  
  
“So when you say it looks like a blue Diamond….”  
“It is because this stone  _is_  a blue diamond. One of two, actually. There was another shard, which we had planned to leave on the Sapphire Isles, but one of my men accidentally encased it in Ice and then it would not remain anymore -it pulled us home, quite literally so.”  
“The Fist of Laufey,” Anton says, having heard the ballad a thousand times.  
“We call it the Casket of Ancient Winters,” Préost Thor explains. “Though I believe the Northerners have another name for it.”  
“Of course,” Loki nods. “To us, it is the Diamond Of All Things.”


End file.
